University Ins tute of Legal Studies, Panjab

University, Chandigarh

Interpreta on of Statutes: Internal Aids to

Construc on

SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED

BY:
Dr. Gurpreet Kaur Sandhu Param Partap
Aujla
B.Com. LLB
285/20
Semester 6TH
Section – E
ti
ti
ti
Acknowledgement
The success and final outcome of my project required a lot of
guidance and assistance from many people and I am
extremely privileged to have got this all along the completion
of my project. All that I have done is due to their supervision
and assistance and I would not forget to thank them. It
would not have been possible without the kind support and
help of many individuals and organizations. I would like to
extend my sincere thanks to all of them.

I am highly indebted to “Dr. Gurpreet Kaur Sandhu” for their

guidance and constant supervision as well as providing
necessary information regarding the project and also for their
support in completing the project.

I would like to express my gratitude towards my parents

and friends for the kind cooperation and encouragement
which helped me in completion of this project.

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 INDEX

CONTENTS
PG.NO.

1.Meaning of Interpretation of Statutes

4

2.Internal Aids to Interpretation

5
➢Title
➢Preamble
➢Marginal notes
➢Headings
➢Illustration
➢Explanation
➢Definition
➢Punctuation
➢Schedules
➢Saving clause
➢Proviso
➢Exception

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3.Conclusion
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4.Bibliography
13

Meaning:

Interpretation Of Statutes

Interpretation is the process which is employed by the judiciary

to ascertain or to determine the meaning of the statutes or
legal provision. It is basically a process by which court seeks to
ascertain the true meaning of the expression or word or phrase
which is in question in any statute before the court and
determine the true intention of the legislature behind such
statutory provision.

A process of interpretation employed by the judiciary can be

done through various tools or principles of statutory
interpretation which include seeking help from internal or
external aids to interpretation and applying primary or
secondary rule of interpretation which has evolved over a
period of time by the court.

❖ Definitions:
According to Salmond:
Interpretation and construction is the process by which
the court seek to ascertain the meaning of the legislature
through the medium of authoritative forms in which it is
expressed.

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 According to Blackstone:
The most fair and rational method for interpreting a
statute is by exploring the intention of the legislature
through texts, the subject matter, the effect and
consequences or the spirit and reason of law.

Aids To Interpretation Of Statutes

An Aid is considered as a tool or device which helps in
interpreting a statute, the court can take help from internal
aids to interpretation (i.e.
within statutes) or external aids to interpretation (i.e. outside
the statutes)

Internal Aids To Interpretation

Internal aids means those aids which are available in the

statute itself, court can interpret the statute by employing such
aids which are as follows:

1. Title of the statute

There are basically two types of title-

I. Short Title

The short title of the Act is only its name which is given solely
for the purpose of reference and identification. Short title is
mention under Section 1 of the Acts and ends with the year of
passing of the Act.
Example- Section 1 of CPC says, This Act may be cited as Code
of Civil Procedure, 1908.' Section 1 of Indian contract Acts
says, This Act may be called as Indian Contract Act, 1872.

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II.Long Title

The long title is mention under certain acts whose purpose is to

give a general description about the object of the act. However,
it is not considered as a conclusive aid to interpretation of
statutes as it doesn't resolve ambiguity arising in words or
expression under statutory provision but only provide a general
idea of the act. Example- The long title of CrPC says, An act to
consolidate and amend the laws relating to the criminal
procedure. Also, the long title of CPC says, An act to
consolidate and amend the laws relating to the procedure of
the courts of civil judicature.

2. Preamble

Preamble is a tool for internal aid to interpretation as it

contains the main objects and reasons of the Act.

The rule of interpretation of preamble is that when a language

of an enactment is clear and unambiguous, the preamble has
no part to play but if more than one interpretation is possible,
a help can be taken from preamble to ascertain the true
meaning of the provision.

The preamble is mention on the very first page of the act but
modern acts doesn't pass with preamble which is declining its
importance.

State of West Bengal v. Anwar Ali, the constitutionality of

Section 5 of the West Bengal special courts act, 1950 was
challenged on the grounds of violative of Article 14 of the
constitution as the provision in the act authorize state
government to select a particular case which deserved to be
tried by special courts having special procedure. The Supreme
Court take help of the preamble of the said Act and held that
state government has discretion to choose such cases.

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 3. Marginal notes

Marginal notes are inserted at the side of the sections in an act

which express the effect of the section but they are not part of
statute.

The rule of interpretation is that in olden times a help is used

to be taken from marginal notes when the clear meaning of the
provision is in doubt but as per modern view of the court,
marginal notes doesn't have any role to play because neither
they are inserted by legislators nor does they form the part of
the statute.

However, for interpreting constitution many times marginal

notes are referred because they are made by constituent
assembly.

Bengal Immunity Company v. State of Bihar, the Supreme

Court held that the marginal notes of Article 286 is the part of
the Constitution of India which talks about Restrictions as to
imposition of the tax on the sale or purchase of goods
therefore, it could be relied on to furnish a clue to the purpose
and meaning of the article.

4. Headings

Headings are prefixed to sections or a group or set of sections.

These headings have been treated by courts as preambles to

those sections or sets of sections.

The rule of interpretation is that the heading can't control the

plain words of the provision but if after the plain reading of the
section more than one meaning is possible, only then the court
may seek guidance from the headings.

Tolley v. Giddings , interpretation of section 217 of Road

Traffic Act was in question which provides that a person could

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be held liable of an offence if he allowed himself to be driven
away in a motor vehicle without the consent of its master. The
heading of the provision is Miscellaneous and general' and sub
heading is Penalization of taking motor vehicle without
authority'. The court held that headings to the section clearly
explain the intention of the legislature and thus the passenger
would be held liable of an offence.

5. Illustration

Illustration are appended to a section of a statute with a view

to illustrating the law explained in the provision. Such
illustration manifest the intention of the legislature and can be
referred in the case of ambiguity or repugnancy.

However, the court emphasis through various judgments that it

doesn't explain the whole principle explain in the section
through illustration nor does it curtail the ambit of the section.

In the case of repugnancy between section and illustration,

section will prevail.

Example- Section 378 of theft in IPC has 16 illustrations

attached to it.

6. Explanation

The explanations are inserted with the purpose of explaining

the meaning of a particular provision and to remove doubts
which might creep up if the explanation had not been inserted.

The purpose of explanations are to explain the meaning and

intention of act, to clarify in case of obscurity or vagueness and
to provide additional support to the object of the act.

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However, it doesn't expand or curtail the meaning of the
provision but only tries to remove uncertainty and in the case
of conflict between explanation and main section, the duty of
the court is to harmonize the two.

Example- section 108 of IPC defines the word abettor' which

has five explanation attach to it.

7. Definition or Interpretation clause

It define certain words used elsewhere in the body of statute

with the purpose to avoid the necessity of frequent repetitions
in describing the subject matter and extend the natural
meaning of some words as per the statute. It also define
intention of the legislature in respect of words mention in
statute and avoid confusion.

The rule of interpretation is that whenever the words means or

means and include' are used in definition, it makes the
definition exhaustive and don't allow to interpret the definition
widely but if the word includes' is used in the definition it
provide widest interpretation possible to the definition or
enlarge the ordinary meaning of the word.

However, if the definition clause will result in an absurdity, the

court will not apply such definitions and the definition clause of
one act can't be used to explain same word used in another
statute except in the case of statutes in pari materia.

Mahalaxmi Oils Mils v. State of A.P, interpretation of word

tobacco was in question which said tobacco means any form of
tobacco whether cured or uncured or manufactured or not and
includes leaf stalks and steams of tobacco plant. The SC held
that the definition is exhaustive and refused to include tobacco
seeds under the definition of tobacco.

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 8. Punctuation

Punctuation are put in the form of colon, semi colon, comma,

full stop, dash, hyphen, brackets etc

In earlier times statutes were passed without punctuations and

therefore, the courts were not concerned with looking at
punctuations but in modern times statutes are passed with
punctuations.

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The rule of interpretation is that while interpreting the
provision in punctuated form, if court feels repugnancy or
ambiguity the court shall read the whole provision without any
punctuation and if the meaning is clear will so interpret it
without attaching any importance.

9. Schedules

Schedule are the part of statutes which are mentioned at the

end of the act. It contains details prescribe form of working out
policies and contains subjects in the form of lists.

In the case of clash between schedule and the main body of an

act, the main body shall prevail.

Example- Article 1 of the constitution provides that India shall

be union of states and in schedule 1 name of the states with its
territories are mention.

10. Saving Clause

Saving Clause are generally appended in cases of repeal and

reenactment of a new statute. It is inserted in the repealing
statute.

By this the rights already created under repealed enactment

are not disturbed nor are new rights created by it.

In the case of clash between the main part of statute and a

saving clause, the saving clause has to be rejected.

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 11. Proviso

The proviso to a section has the natural presumption that

enacting part of the section would have included the subject
matter of the proviso.

The proviso serve four different purposes- qualify or exempt

certain provision, provide mandatory condition to be fulfilled by
to make enactment workable, act as optional addenda and
become integral part of the enactment.

The rule of interpretation of proviso is that it can neither nullify

the implication of main enactment nor can enlarge the scope of
main enactment and can only be referred in case of ambiguity
in the section.

In case of conflict between main enactment and proviso, it

must be harmoniously construct or in the view of many jurist
proviso will prevail as it is the last intention of the legislature.

Example- Article 16(4) is considered as proviso of Article 16(1)

held in T.
Devadasan v. Union of India.

12. Exception

Exception are generally added to an enactment with the

purpose of exempting something which would otherwise fall
within the ambit of the main provision.

In case of repugnancy between exception and main enactment,

the latter must be relied upon. However, in many cases
exceptions are relied being the last intention of legislature.

Example: Section 300 of IPC has five exceptions attached to it.

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 CONCLUSION

Legislators draft the statutes with utmost care. They ensure

that no provision of the law causes ambiguity. After drawing
these statutes, they undergo an intensive debate and
discussion. A group of intellectuals scrutinise the draft
proposal. However, sometimes people misinterpret the texts of
these statutes. Such misinterpretation might result in disputes
between parties. Hence, to resolve any misunderstanding
concerning texts of the provision(s), the statutes are provided
with multiple internal aids to interpretation like- marginal
notes, exceptions, schedules, etc. These aids are beneficial in
situations where the provision’s text could be interpreted as
having two different meanings.

These aids support the actual meaning of the text and the
legislators’ intention while drafting these statutes and
provisions. The judiciary has used internal aids to settle the
disputes arising out of the substantial question of law or fact.
Internal aids to interpretation help legislators while drafting
new proposals. It makes it convenient for them to convey their
actual messages through explanations, illustrations etc. Being
an essential part of the statute itself, internal aids to
interpretation serve to be more reliable than external aids.
These are considered to be the first option for answering the
substantial questions on the law in case of ambiguities in the
texts.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

• SITES USED
➢ https://www.legalserviceindia.com/legal/
article-2713interpretation-of-statutes-a-complete-
study-to-an-aids-tointerpretation.html
➢ https://lawcorner.in/internal-aids-to-interpretation/

➢ https://blog.ipleaders.in/internal-aids-toconstruction/
#:~:text=The%20internal%20aids%20include%20t
itle,
%2C%20explanations%2C%20schedules%20and%20
punctu
ation.

• BOOKS USED
➢ Bhattacharya, T., The Interpretation of Statutes,
(2017), Central Law Agency.
➢ Singh, G.P., Principles of Statutory Interpretation,
(2022), Lewis
Nexis.

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